Blog Archives

Let’s be glad we still live where the city council is willing to at least give the appearance of listening to the residents of its community. In Los Angeles the city council has come under fire by community activists for letting in too much efficiency to the public forum.

On the home front, this week’s agenda is brief and pretty much to the point. Only the usual suspects inhabit the Closed Session Agenda and even the sole Public Hearing Item on the Regular Agenda is pro forma for this time of year. I will say, looking at staff reports on other items, it appears the city council and Angels owner, Arte Moreno, are close to finishing up a deal on Legacy Property. I doubt it will be for the new stadium, however (did I hear a collective sigh from the dais?).

The Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Grant is a regular January agenda item required by the feds to obtain funding under Citizens Option for Public Safety (COPS). The Chief, or acting chief, is asking for authorization to use the proceeds to staff a crime analyst position for the ninth year. Nothing new here, move along.

Item 4, Destruction of Records, is always a sore point with me. The city supposedly went to an electronic format for the storage of records awhile back. No mention of it here so, we don’t know if the records that are being requested for destruction will be saved electronically. Perhaps the council will care enough to ask.

Item 5, Selective Traffic Enforcement Program, is asking to use the proceeds from another grant for the purchase of replacement equipment. 5 LIDAR (think laser speed detection) units as well as various equipment for DUI enforcement are included. Again, nothing special……except…..

It seems the request memo was signed by Steven Lewis, “Acting Chief of Police”. So, where’s Chief Cellano? I sent an email to City Manager Jeff Parker who has not responded. No mention of any personnel action on the agenda…..hmmmm.

The only other item on the agenda, under Regular Business, is a request for a temporary sign program at the Tustin Legacy. At a cost of nearly $300 thousand dollars, the city council might want to consider an investment in permanent signage instead. This is especially true since, according to the Agenda Report, “staff will be returning with a permanent sign program in the near future…”. I love how the city manager’s staff love to spend other people’s money to make themselves look good.

Judging from the length of the agenda, this week’s Tustin City Council meeting is liable to go a tad longer than the 52 minutes of the last meeting. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Closed Session goes into overtime.

The city council is still discussing the performance evaluations (and probably salary adjustments) for the City Attorney and the City Manager. I’m not sure why they have David Kendig under Public Employment as he is a contract employee placed there by the city’s attorneys, Woodruff, Spradlin and Smart. If they are unhappy with Kendig’s performance (face it, he’s no Doug Holland), they only need to make a call.

First up under Presentations is our old friend TyRon Jackson. Jackson is being honored for his Operation Warm Wishes project. Jackson is active with the homeless community as well as Tustin at-risk youth. His efforts have helped hundreds of families and kids in the Tustin-Santa Ana area and this award is well-deserved.

On the Consent Calendar, the city council will be asked to approve a $24 thousand dollar expenditure for Willdan Homeland Solutions to provide tech support for the annual Emergency Operations Center exercise. Not much money but one wonders about the justification for single sourcing the contract.

I hope one of the councilmembers will pull Item 5, Resolution for Completion of the Newport Bike Trail, for comment. I have ridden a lot of bike trails in the county over the years and I always thought the Newport trail was a pretty good one. The new trail is absolutely beautiful and functional. If you haven’t ridden it, it’s worth the trip. The contractor came in $53 thousand under budget, to boot. Pat yourselves on the back, city council.

I take issue with the John Wayne Noise Abatement Quarterly Report, however. The noise level at Columbus Tustin School was reportedly well below government thresholds. Perhaps they should move the monitoring station to my house where it is considerably louder. It should be noted, the city council took the easy way out by supporting the extension to the operating agreements, supposedly for fear it would open a can of worms. Note to Al Murray: sometimes you just have to take a stand on principle.

Hopefully a member of the public with some sense will bring up discussion of Item 11, Comment Letter Draft on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. In short, the city council is supporting the governor’s ill proposed effort to tunnel under the Delta to provide water directly from the Sacramento River to Southern California. Never mind we have been stealing their water since the 1930’s the proposal laughingly purports to be a conservation effort for the Delta when, in fact, it is likely to do the opposite. The city, which obtains nearly half it’s water by theft, is jumping on the Governor’s band wagon. I wonder if they see a value in his high speed rail project as well?

The final item on the agenda is a request for travel by Councilman Chuck Puckett to attend the re-accreditation ceremony of the Tustin Police Department. I haven’t asked but I presume Chief Celano (who should have the department webmaster remove the “interim” from his page on the TPD website) will be attending as well. Congratulation, once again, to Chief Celano and the men and women of the Tustin Police Department.

I have a feeling this will be a council meeting worth watching. And, as it seems the Orange County Register is slowly crumbling into the dust, I may be your only source for true, accurate and highly biased information. That means I will have to step up my efforts. I think I can, I think I can…

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting our new Tustin Police Chief, Charles Cellano. Cellano was named the interim Chief immediately after Scott Jordan’s retirement in mid-2013. He was given a permanent appointment in February of this year.

During our conversation, the Chief reminded me of last weekend’s 18th Annual Tustin Police Department Open House and the upcoming “Coffee With a Cop” to be held this Wednesday at Keans Coffee.

Open the Doors

While we briefly attended the Open House, we were not able to stay long. However, we did run into a couple of our fine councilmen, the honorable Chuck Puckett and the honorable John Nielsen. Chuck admitted this is the earliest he has ever attended the event, usually opting for a late afternoon appearance. See what being a councilman does for you, Chuck? John looked quite relaxed, probably owing to that new wife of his.

The line for tours of the police station and the mobile command post were both quite long even before the first hour was up. I would say the only longer line was the one for hot dogs, graciously being handed out by volunteers. There was a great display of vintage army vehicles manned by a gentleman in period costume. And, while I did not get to see the demonstration, the police motorcycle unit was out in force to show off their skills.

Cop Talk

One of the things that excited Chief Cellano most is the upcoming Coffee With a Cop happening tomorrow at Keans Coffee. The Chief emphasized the informal nature of the event. This is the chance for Tustin residents, who may never otherwise have contact with our police, to sit down ever-so-briefly and speak about anything of interest to them. The event is only one of many planned around Our Town and is an effort by the chief to make sure Tustin PD remains accessible to the residents.

I could not let the discussion go much further without asking about the recent officer involved shooting. Cellano said that, despite repeated efforts to reach out to the family and protesters, no one has stepped forward to take up his invitation of a meeting.

That is disconcerting as the family and others have attended multiple meetings of the city council, demanding justice and policy change. And, although the city, both Chief Cellano and City Manager Jeff Parker have offered to meet with them, they have, so far refused. That leads me to believe they have no real interest in seeing meaningful changes that they have the opportunity to be a part of. Instead, they would rather join the police-bashing bandwagon where their voices will be lost in the cacophony..

There are a few more events coming this year and the Tustin Police Department will be a large part of it. Of course, the Tustin Tiller Days and the accompanying parade could not happen without the organization of the police department. Which, by the way, is another thing about our Chief. He is obviously proud of the 97 sworn officers of the department – he speaks just as proudly of the professional staff, the dispatchers, service officers and office personnel, as well as his small but fiesty cadre of volunteers. To hear him tell it, the official Accreditation of TPD would not be possible without them. We agree but as we’ve said before, it takes a good coach to get them there.

When asked about the volunteers, he said that most are recruited from the Citizens Police Academy held every year. The academy is a mini-introduction to police work in general and Tustin Police policies and procedures specifically. The sessions are held once a week (this time on Thursday evening) and include a variety of topics including police procedure and a ridealong. An academy is forming now, if you are interested. Yes, he asked me, but once you’ve been through the real thing, you’re not in a hurry to head back there. If you go, however, I guarantee you will come out with a new perspective of modern police work.

Too soon, our time was up and Chief Cellano and I parted company with an agreement to stay in touch.

Make sure, if you get a chance, to head over to Keans on Wednesday morning. If you do, make sure you say hi to me as well. If you’re a fan, I’ll shake your hand. If you’re a critic, well, I made you think.

Unless we run into another protest in chambers, this week’s Tustin City Council meeting should be fairly short. In fact, the Closed Session, which starts at 5:30 may be longer than the public forum.

The Closed Session has the usual items on it including multiple litigation issues. Two new claims from Russell Taitz and Southern California Edison will also be considered. Surprisingly, there are no real estate issues to bother them tonight. That’s because they completed multiple deals with developers and the Army Reserve for a land swap at their last meeting.

The Regular Session Agenda is headed up by presentations to students and teachers alike. Shelby Van Raes will be recognized for the Student Writing Contest while Joy Wardlaw and Jennifer Morrow will be recognized as Teachers of the Year. Congratulations to all.

One noteworthy item on the consent calendar is the purchase of electronic citation devices for the police department. Reading the staff report, it appears the department is being forced into the program due to changes in the court system. Cost is $110,000 that will be pulled from appropriate funding. Although the cost is substantial, this project is long overdue. To date, only three cities use electronic citations in a pilot project. The courts are forcing the issue but cities will benefit in a variety of ways in eliminating manual processing and more accurate ticketing. It will also make for efficiency in the police ranks, most of whom have better things to do than spend their time writing tickets.

Another issue on the Consent Calendar that begs discussion is the contracting out of processing and collecting administrative citations. It’s unfortunate the Republican hand has convinced everyone that contracting services is the best way to run city government. Judging from the cost, an in-house staff could probably handle this part-time at less cost. We can’t ascertain that for sure as staff have conveniently left off the amount of revenue realized from administrative citations. As with the business license issue awhile back, however, Community Development Director Elizabeth Binsack doesn’t appear interested in having her staff do grunt work.

The sole item under Regular Business is the second reading of an ordinance that would keep keep some Tustin codes relating to construction consistent with California Green Building Standards Codes by incorporating them through reference. The ordinance will lessen the need for repeated changes caused by changes in California law.

That’s the end of the council’s regular business. Unfortunately, at the last meeting, nearly all of the councilmembers delayed the requisite reading of their community activities due to the protesters. That means an inordinate amount of time may be spent listening to the combined diatribe. The good news? The Podiatrist Councilman did get to list his off last meeting. So, his list may not be as long. I did notice he looks up occasionally from his notes nowadays. Perhaps he took a few public speaking lessons.